Content

Block1: Scenography study and research methods (Prof.: Anna Solanilla)

The aim of this block is to start introducing the learner with the appropriate methodological tools to study and analyze the stage design. Scenography is currently all analogue (corporal) or digital, audiovisual device that participates in the scene in the creation of meaning (dramatic qualities).

However, the design of space, light, sound, and character has had different purposes that have historically been modulated. In these sessions we will focus on scenery from the late 19th to the present. In the current scenery, proposals that have conceptual origins have different historical and theoretical perspectives that are re-visited in the present, in contemporarily, with a broad spectrum of purposes.

 

General Contents

 To develop an analysis and research into the scenery environment, it is necessary to take care of two relevant aspects:

1. The proper documentation of the object of study. In the study sessions and in practical terms, research methods will be put in place to correct the difficulties inherent in the field of short-lived qualities.

2. The application of the relevant approach to analysis according to the purpose or meaning of the scenery.

Scenography research needs to take into account the different approaches and concepts with which it should be covered. These blog sessions aim to introduce the basic concepts necessary to start research in this field:

1. The "frame scenery" or the concept of illustration from traditional scenery to contemporary productions.

2. Modern, corporal and expressive scenography (constructivism scenery or surreal scenery, ...), typical of modernity. Analysis of the elements in play (of metaphorical qualities) while analyzing their expressive effectiveness in reception.

3. Contemporary performance and dramatic qualities scenery. Cases of Catalan and international scenes.

 

Specific Contents

1."The picture scenery" or the concept of illustration in scenery. From historical proposals to current productions. Analysis of the elements in play while analyzing their effectiveness as sign syntax (semotic perspective) in reception. Visit MAE 1: The illustrative scenery of neoclassicism, post-Romanticism and realism. Introduction to modern scenery.

2.The modern set of metaphorical qualities. The scenography of Constructivism or Surrealist scenography, typical of modernity. Analysis of the elements in play while analyzing their expressive effectiveness (bases and hybridization between the semiotic and performative perspective) in reception. Visit MAE 2   Symbolist Scenography: Adrià Gual and the avant-garde scenery in Catalonia: Joan Morales and Ramon Batlle.

3.Contemporary scenery. Part1: Second avant-garde, Fabià Puigserver and Iago Pericot. Visit MAE 3.The set by Fabià Puigserver and Iago Pericot.

4.Contemporary scenery. Part2: a paradigmatic case, Anna Viebrock.

 

Block2: The character and stage costume. Analysis. (Prof.: Marta Rafa)

 The goal of this block is to introduce students to the analysis of stage costume design and the creation of the character by giving them the basic tools to confront them.

 General Contents

 Even though the analysis, research or study of stage costumes is still needed, we need to bear in mind the concepts that underpin and involve themselves in this area of stage creation, but also the different approaches that it has taken throughout history. These blog sessions aim to understand this field from its broadest conception:

1.Plastic Dimension: Intrinsic elements of costume design and character in their visual and temporal deployment.

2.Conceptual dimension: approaches that support plastic deployment.

3.Dramatric Dimension: Narrative and scenic capacity of the proposal.

 However, the design of space, light, sound and character has had different purposes that have historically been modulated. In these sessions we will focus on scenery from the late 19th to the present.

Specific Contents

1.Elements and concepts that are put at stake in costume design and character and that will help a semiotic, plastic and dramatic analysis:

• Body, piece, context, movement and audience.
• Composition: Color, texture, shape and volume.
• Composing: Background/Shape. Fixed/mobile items
• Presence, absence and trace.

 

2.From body to body: chronological tour of character concept and stage costumes (I). From ritual to "historic" costumes. The creation of the character. The semiotic body.

3.From body to body: chronological tour of character concept and stage costumes (II). The phenomenical body. The body matter. The performative body. Character crisis.

4. Processes and creation methodologies.

• Plantations or statements.
• Research, references, artistic team dialogue.
• Design/laboratory
• Communication: Graphic expression, materials, technical specifications, prototypes.
• Performing, research, manipulation, finish.
• Testing process.

 

Block3: The Theatre Site (Prof.: pending teacher)

 The aim of this block is to address the definition and study of the theatrical site with a more spatial than temporal approach. It will not therefore be a question of deploying a scenic space story, even if you look at it from the rear, but of establishing spatial categories that will allow you to construct a kind of topology of the theatre site that, despite being a synchronic, could be recognized over time. 

 General Contents

1.         Space and theatre, meeting points: schools and congresses. Theatres, shelters or buildings.

2.         Scenic topology: the circle, the podium, the box, the empty space, the city.

 

Specific Contents

1. Space and theatre, meeting points: schools and congresses. The theatre workshop at the Bauhaus, 1919-1933. Architecture and Dramaturgy, Paris 1948. The theatre site in modern society, Royaumont 1961. Theatrical architecture.
2. The circle, the podium and the box. The circle: at the origin of the tragedy; at the Odin Theatre Trokes; at the Total Theatre of Walter Gropius and Erwin Piscator. The inversion of the central space at Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty.
3. The podium: in the travelling theatre; in the spontaneous theatre of Le Corbusier; in the Commedia dell Arte; in the classical Greco-Roman theatre; in the Elizabethan theatre. Powers and simultaneous scenes in the medieval theatre and the scene of the new avant-garde.
4. The box: the invention of the theatre in the Italian one. The scenario: The box of miracles or space of reality. The stage mouth and the fourth wall. The Wagnerian mystic grave and the scene of Bertolt Brecht's epic theatre. Locuses and amphitheatre.
5. The empty space. Peter Brook, The empty space, 1968. Empty space, pure space: the Festpielhaus of Hellerau, 1911. Empty space and machine theatre: the Schaubühne in the Lehniner Platz.  Empty space and fair place: the Thé.tre du Soleil in the Cartoucherie del Bosc de Vincennes de Paris. Empty space and found place: the tournées of Peter Brook's company.
6. The city. Street theatre, site specific. The theatrical site, theatrical cartoons: the case of Barcelona. A visit to the website of the Observatory of Performing Spaces.

 

 

Block 1: Reading articles and writing files. These files collect the materials and references for the analysis and subsequent research on the scenography.
										
											
										
											 
										
											
										
											Block 2: Readings and commentary on texts.
										
											
										
											 
										
											
										
											Block 3: Analytical comments of projects.

A. Continuous evaluation:
										
											1. Submission of work proposal, between session 3 and 4 of the module. Send the professors of the module the topic of the work (provisional title, summary of 150 words, bibliography with at least 5 academic items).
										
											2. Submission of the Final Module Work: one week after completion of the same. The length of the work must be 10 to 15 pages, or 2,500-5,000 words (abstract, bibliography and separate notes) as a conference communication. It must explicitly include the sources used. Any detected plagiarism implies an irrevocable suspension.
										
											
										
											 B. Single assessment
										
											The single assessment will consist of:
										
											
										
											   1-  Written or oral test of the contents of the subject, 33.3%
										
											    2- Analysis from the perspective of the scenic design of a show, 33.3%
										
											    3- Critical comment of a reading in the field of stage design provided by teachers, 33.3%.

The same assessment method as continuous assessment will be used.

Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.